


Avoid the dark

by apathyinreverie



Series: Tripping over tombstones [3]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Gen, Post-Canon, Sad, Siblings, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-19
Updated: 2019-03-19
Packaged: 2019-11-24 04:42:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18161615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/apathyinreverie/pseuds/apathyinreverie
Summary: The day Allison finally realizes the full implications of Klaus’ ability 'to see the dead', she locks herself in her room as soon as they get home from their mission. And she cries.





	Avoid the dark

They've been back in the past for almost three months when Allison _finally_ understands the full implications of Klaus’ ability 'to see the dead'. The realization almost feels like a physical blow.

And she barely manages to hold it together until they get home from the mission and then she takes off, locking herself in her room as soon as they do.

And then she cries. Cries like she has never cried before. Not when she got divorced, not even when she lost custody of her own daughter.

She cries silently at first as she tries to wipe her own tears, but at some point she starts sobbing, tears running unhindered, simply because she doesn't know how to deal with this. And she knows for once no one will come to check on her because the others are just as affected as she is, just as blindsided and hurting and so damn ashamed.

She doesn’t think she’ll ever be able to forget the sight of that little ghost, a boy, five or maybe six years old, glowing brilliantly in blue, having been unintentionally caught by the effects of Klaus’ powers. The little boy with half his skull gone from a gunshot wound to his head, looking so endlessly, helplessly lost.

And her brother Klaus just kneeling down in front of the little ghost - Ben a silent, grim shadow at his shoulder - talking to the boy as though nothing were wrong at all.

The desperation in that child ghost’s eyes as he latched onto Klaus as soon as he realized he was finally seen, was finally acknowledged and the pain in her brother’s own eyes at the fact that he could do absolutely nothing to help the child, almost physically painful to see.

And even as the blue glowing image of the child faded from their view, Klaus still continued talking, the child clearly still just as visible to him as before, even if the rest of them couldn't see the boy any longer.

The image is burned into the back of her eyelids, immovable, unchangeable, there to haunt her. Quite deservedly so.

Because she remembers all those times they made fun of Klaus as children for the uselessness of his abilities, made fun of him for being afraid of the dead who couldn’t actually harm him. All those times - even in the more recent past - one of them had made a careless comment about how cool it must be that Klaus can talk to anyone who has died, even any historical figures he wants to. All those times they didn’t give a single thought to the potentially soul-crushingly, devastatingly sad aspect of a power like Klaus’.

She has never felt so foolish.

+++

It takes her until the next morning to finally make it out of her room again. She would honestly just like to stay curled up in bed, not really ready to face the world, which isn't at all helped by having spent most of last night crying, her eyes still slightly reddish and swollen.

When she enters the kitchen for breakfast, the others are already there in their usual spots around the table.

Breakfast turns out to be a rather subdued affair.

Klaus – the only one unaffected by the revelations of yesterday’s mission, possibly even unaware of something having happened in the first place - is anything but a morning person, as usual only lifting his head from his folded arms on the table to sip his coffee, his eyes barely open, not speaking a word and probably not even noticing anything being different at all.

But she can definitely see the effects on the others.

Diego and Luther are clearly in the same boat as Allison, looking pale, dark circles under their eyes, like neither of them slept a wink, something haunted in their eyes whenever they glance at Klaus. Vanya and Five look grim, sad, although not nearly as shocked as the rest of them. But it really isn’t surprising that those two would have realized the implications of Klaus’ powers earlier – Vanya being the most empathic person Allison knows and Five being the smartest - and thus not being taken quite as off guard by yesterday’s mission as the rest of them.

But it’s Ben who really catches her attention.

Ben who has a grimly satisfied and so incredibly relieved glint in his eyes. Relief at everyone finally _getting_ just what it is that makes Ben so uncompromisingly protective of Klaus, their far too soft-hearted brother.

Allison swallows and thinks to herself that Ben had it right all along.

In all honesty, it’s a wake-up call long overdue.

**Author's Note:**

> Sheesh, this turned out a little more devastatingly sad than I had intended…  
> Would still love to know what you think :)


End file.
